The ruling on the utterance of the two testimonies by one who abandons prayer at the time of his death

Question:
If a person never prayed in his life, but then was guided to utter the two testimonies before his death, does he become a Muslim and is he treated in the Hereafter as Muslims are treated and gathered with the Muslims?

Answer:
If he utters them as repentance and entry into Islam, Allah will erase what has passed. If he did not say them before, but then comes with them as a repentant person, a monotheist, sincere to Allah, and aware of their meaning—meaning: abandoning shirk (associating partners with Allah) and abandoning sins, and resolving to abandon all of them—then this is repentance, meaning a repentance by which Allah erases what came before and what was done before... what was done before with good.
As for if he says them as a habit, they are of no benefit; because he died upon shirk (associating partners with Allah). He says them in his life and at the time of his death. If he says them while he worships graves, calls for aid from the dead, and commits sins, and did not say them out of repentance or return, then they are like his saying them in his life and health; they do not affect anything. So he remains upon his disbelief and misguidance, like the hypocrites who say them while they are upon their disbelief and hypocrisy, and like the worshippers of graves today who say them in gatherings and in every place while they worship the people of the graves, calling for aid from them, making vows for them, and slaughtering for them, like the worshippers of al-Badawi, the worshippers of al-Husayn, the worshippers of Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir, and the worshippers of others. We ask Allah for safety.

The presenter: O Allah, amen.